A/N: I got my first bad review! Hahahahahaa. It was entertaining. It was one of those unsigned ones, because I allow anonymous reviews, and it just said "boring" in capital letters! To whoever sent it: "Congratulations. You're an idiot." I mean, hello? Cool, you find it boring. I'm OK with that, I get that not everyone will like my stories. But couldn't you have at least taken the trouble to tell me WHY you found it boring? HOW I could have improved it? I really love reviews, good AND bad, but if you must not like it, can you tell me WHY? Typing one word telling me it's boring just makes me giggle. So, thanks for your review! You actually made me laugh! Anyway, to continue with my "boring" story, here is chapter six! As always, R&R!

The Most Terrible Of Losses

Bella barely leaves my side - and this is partly because I refuse to let her. Finally, I have my baby back, finally my girl is back by my side after nearly one hundred and fifty years, and I have no plans to be letting her go any time soon.

"Darlin', don't you wonder what life would've been like if you hadn't left, if you'd stayed when we were ten?" I ask her one night, a week after we shared that kiss. She's sitting on my bed, leaning against the headboard, and my head is in her lap, combing my hair through her fingers.

"We wouldn't have been vampires, I'm betting. We'd probably have grown up together, got married. I knew that was what my parents were planning, before Daddy got that job, and we had to move." She pauses, and her fingers still. "That's it," she breathes, "that's it. Fate, destiny - everything Edward said to you was true. If we hadn't been pulled apart, there wouldn't have been a new way for us to be together. We would have been married, and had pretty babies, and prettier grandbabies. We would have got old and grey and died together."

"Huh. Us. Babies."

"Scares the hell out of you, doesn't it?" she queries, with a quiet laugh, and strokes my hair again, rhythmically.

BPOV

I try not to let him see this conversation is bothering me. I can almost see it - sitting on a porch, of the house all our children had been born and raised in, a house many years older than us, Jasper and I with grey hair. A handsome young man with his hand on my shoulder - our eldest son, as his own children tumble at Jasper's feet to listen to him tell them stories.

"Baby?" His voice enters my world with a ringing sharpness. There is worry in his face. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing Jay -"

"Bullshit," he says, calmly sitting himself beside me instead on lying down and gathering me up into his arms so I can rest my head on his chest. "you weren't here just then. You were looking at something. You don't do Alice, do you?"

"No, Jay, I can't see the future," I say, smiling gently.

"Would you have preferred that outcome?" He asks, quietly. "Do you still long for that to be possible?"

"For what to be possible, Jay?"

"For us to have babies. You and I. Babies, for us to be able to have babies together. If I could give you -"

"Jasper it doesn't matter now. It isn't possible, so why worry about it?"

"But did - do - you want it?"

"It's the thing I miss most about being human," I admit. "Knowing that that will never be possible for me. And yes, before you ask, I would have happily settled down with you, got married to you and had babies with you. And yes, if I found a way, even now, for me to be able to have a child, I would take it without thinking about it." I close my eyes, welcome the darkness. He holds me closer, his lips kissing my hair. I cling to his shirt, rubbing my cheek on the soft cotton.

"Mi dispiace, bella," he murmurs, kissing my cheek gently, then my lips, a feather touch of hot breath he doesn't need brushing against my lips.

"When did you learn Italian?" I mumble, not quite trusting myself to meet his eyes just yet.

"It was a time-filler, after I met the Cullen's. Distracted me, too, from the cravings, and everything else. All the memories of Maria, and so on. And I always wanted to learn another language. You speak it too."

"Learned it before I went to Volterra. I figured that it couldn't hurt to be prepared. I learnt French before I went to France and Canada, learned Spanish before I went to Spain. I can also speak German, Russian, enough Polish to get by and a few choice phases in Portuguese. Oh, and I'm fluent in Romany, too."

"You always were a clever girl, Bella."

"Yeah, but I got around a lot. I sort of had to learn it. And Aro doesn't speak Romany, so I always had that slight advantage of muttering under my breath in Romany whenever he pissed me off, which happened quite a lot. I think he was quite pleased when I eventually left."

"You must have really irritated him."

"I got on his nerves more or less daily. Not least because he knew I was powerful and I not only refused to tell him how powerful, he couldn't get inside my head to force it out of me. And because I used to enjoy playing mind games with him, and Caius, every now and again. Caius is more entertaining to annoy, but more dangerous."

"You mind-gamed Caius, and yet you aren't a pile of gently smoking ashes?" Jasper asks, his face incredulous.

"Correct."

"What sort of mind-games?"

"Now, if I told you that, what secrets would I have left? No, it was mostly harmless jokes, really. Swapping human blood for animal blood, that sort of thing. But it screwed with his head. He was wondering if he was going mad."

Back to school is odd, after a weekend spent discussing nothing, lying in patches of rare sunlight, watching each other go about our business. I watch him play video games with Emmett, and he watches me sketch, or play piano or, once, my violin. School feels so ordinarily ordinary after the extraordinariness of the ordinary weekend. He holds my hand as we walk down the halls, and he kisses me whenever we part, and whenever we meet again. Then he holds me close in the canteen, his arm firm around my waist, fingertips dancing along my thigh as he strokes my leg just gently. My hand on his leg, trying to convince myself he's real by constantly touching him, constantly kissing him, running my hands through his hair.

To their credit, the others manage nearly two weeks of us. To give them their dues, they don't say anything about it. I understand completely that it must be annoying for them: I've been around enough newly-mated vampire couples to understand how the constant love and devotion can be stressful for others, as well as downright sickly-sweet. Jasper gets that too, but he told me a few days ago that the only emotions he could feel now were love and hope. And he hadn't felt hope in years. He was barely even aware of

"Christ, you two, give us a break!" Emmett hisses, glaring at us. I drag my eyes away from Jasper, and focus on Emmett.

"What?"

"God! You two! Put each other down, for the love of all that is holy! I actually feel physically sick, so congratulations, you made the undead do the impossible." Emmett could fry eggs with the burning glare he is currently projecting. "Can't you just screw each other already?"

"Urgh, Emmett, you're so crude," Edward murmurs, before directing his gaze at us. "But seriously guys, he has a point. I mean, give us a break. I actually have toothache."

"Sorry," I mumble, before going right back to looking at Jasper. We sort of hear them leave, and part of my brain is sorry we made them do that. And then any and all resistance crumbles the moment his lips touch mine.

He takes me hunting a few days later. It's been such a pleasant haze of kisses, hugs, and murmured endearments, we both forgot that his control wasn't good, and borderline perilous when he hadn't hunted in almost a fortnight.

JPOV

"Why didn't you tell me you hadn't hunted? Have you been in pain?"

"Caro, it doesn't matter. We've remembered now, and according to the Canadian news, they are having a few wolf problems up near Anchorage." She huffs impatiently and throws a jacket on, even though she doesn't need it.

"Don't fob me off with Italian endearments, as sexy as you may be when you speak it. You've been in pain, haven't you, for days, and I didn't notice."

"Bella -"

"I didn't notice, because I was so wrapped up in you and kissing you, and being happy. Christ, I've been so selfish. I forgot you weren't in control, I forgot you have to feed more often -"

"Isabella!" She turns at the sound of her full name. "We both forgot, tesoro, so there's no problem, is there? It isn't your fault. I've barely felt the bloodlust these past few weeks with you. I've barely felt a thing," I promise her, taking her face in my hands and kissing her lips gently. And every word of it is the truth. I have barely even been aware of the fire at the back of my throat. I've barely thought about the need to hunt. "Come on, lets go to Anchorage, hunt us some wolf."

"Oh, can't we go somewhere else?"

"Where were you thinking?"

"Get in the car, sweets, and I'll show you."

I should probably point out here that Bella's car is gorgeous. Blue Audi A3 and lots of power. She barely even knows what she's driving, and brought it because it was "pretty" apparently. This is the point where our relationship reaches stalemate. As long as it moves and gets her around, she doesn't give a shit what it looks like. I like cars, actually love cars, and the casual way she talks about her car drives me mad. She won't let me mess with the engine either, stating that it works perfectly, and she'd thank me to stay off her car.

So we get in, and she drives up to Goat Rocks.

"Bears? You know they aren't in season, right?"

"And the laws of hunting cover guns. Are you planning on using a gun, sweetheart?"

"No -"

"Then there's no problem. I felt like a change, and bears seem like a good place to start. Scared, Jay?"

"Never in a million years, Bella."

"Well, come on then."

"Car, Bella. You need to lock that thing." She fumbles with keys and presses the appropriate button. We set off together, hand in hand, and spot Bella's first target.

"Race you!" She shouts, and I go into hunting mode. I leap, bullet from a gun, and she springs lightly, arrow from a bow, taking the bear down and tackling it to the floor. Her first kill, her first bear. She drains him dry, and there's something so sensual about watching her throat, her lips as it seems she kisses the bear instead of slashing his throat. I feel myself grow hard as she battles with him briefly and as she holds him easily whilst she has her fill from his veins. There's a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth when she rises to her feet. She traces it up with a finger, sucks it clean, her tongue licking those lips. I grab her and kiss her, and she twines her hands in my hair. When I put her away from me, she smiles lazily, and examines a drop of blood on her wrist, slowly wending it's way down her arm. I stop her before she licks it up, and clean her myself.

I turned away from her laughing, and that's when it happened. I saw him just a second before I smelt him. The man in the green jacket, with his back to me, kissing someone I couldn't see properly. And then their scent hit my senses, my throat burst into flames.

And I leapt forward…

A/N: R&R? Please?

Mi dispiace, bella: I'm sorry, beautiful
Caro: Dear
Tesoro: Darling